05 Dec 08

Graduate students from the EPSRC Life Sciences Interface DTC

Oxford University has won funding for two new centres to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has announced. Two more centres have been renewed.

The initiative will see the creation of a new Industrial Doctorate Centre and a new Oxford Centre for Doctoral Training in Biomedical Engineering at the Translational Interface of Next Generation Healthcare at Oxford University.

EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) aim to create communities of researchers working on current and future challenges as well as build relationships between research teams in universities and forge lasting links with industry.

Working closely with EPSRC, Oxford helped to pioneer the new approach to doctoral training with the original Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre (established 2002) and the Doctoral Training Centre in Systems Biology (established 2006).

Professor Dave Delpy, chief executive of EPSRC, said: ‘People are the heart of our future strategy. We want to drive a modern economy and meet the challenges of tomorrow by investing in talented people and inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers.’

Whilst the final funding amounts are yet to be calculated Oxford’s four centres will represent a combined investment of around £25-30m.

The four Oxford centres are:

Industrial Doctorate Centre [new]

The new Industrial Doctorate Centre will provide a comprehensive industrial research training programme, tailored to the needs of each individual student, working with leading research groups both in industry and at the University in healthcare-related programmes. It will also include a major new challenge: developing a systems-level approach to drug development that will draw on advances in basic research into biological systems and how they work.

Oxford Centre for Doctoral Training in Biomedical Engineering at the Translational Interface of Next Generation Healthcare [new]

The new CDT is focused on healthcare innovation, particularly enabling students to appreciate firsthand how the technologies they are developing have potential clinical impact in hospitals, and to develop translational research skills - to both accelerate clinical uptake of technologies that they develop, and to take innovations through the first steps of commercialisation. Students will conduct research in one of three theme areas; cancer therapeutics and delivery, modelling for personalized healthcare, and information-driven healthcare. The CDT will be based at the new Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

Doctoral Training Centre in Systems Biology [renewed for 2009]

The Systems Biology DTC provides a comprehensive training programme for graduates from both the physical and life sciences looking to undertake research in the field of Integrative Systems Biology. It has its own distinct research programme that is strongly aligned to that of the University’s new Centre for Integrative Systems Biology. The research focus of this DTC is to develop a systems approach to ‘bridging the gap’ between theoretical and experimental knowledge from the level of individual molecules to whole cells and organisms.

Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre [renewed 2008]

The LSI DTC offers a comprehensive training programme, and facilitates leading-edge research, in the mathematical, physical and engineering science techniques underpinning four strategically important application areas at the interface between the physical, life and clinical sciences: Biological Physics, Bioinformatics, Medical Imaging and Signals, and Computational Biology.